Book description
THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2022 RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE
From one of our greatest living writers comes a sweeping novel of unrequited love and exile, war and family.
The Magician tells the story of Thomas Mann, whose life was filled with great acclaim and contradiction. He…
Why read it?
1 author picked The Magician as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
This novel's central character is a fictionalization, not of another character, but of an author, Thomas Mann. Tóibín presents the known outer details of Mann’s life well—his work, his fame, and the cultural and social upheavals of 20th-century Germany—but I find the intimate inner life of the great writer most fascinating.
Drawing on Mann’s published works as well as his posthumously published diaries, Tóibín can enter Mann’s mind and heart as he interacts with his wife, his brother, his children, particularly Klaus (nicknamed Essi), his sexuality, and above all, with his forbidden love for the young Tadzio, the love interest…
If you love The Magician...
December on 5C4
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…
Want books like The Magician?
Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like The Magician.
Share your top 3 reads of 2025!
And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.
1,298
readers submitted
so far, will you?
📚 If you like The Magician, you might also like...
Portrait of an Artist as a Young Woman
Kate from Jules et Jim meets I Love Dick.
A young woman filmmaker’s journey of self-discovery, set against a backdrop of the sexual liberation movement of the 1970s and 1980s. In Portrait of an Artist as a Young Woman, we follow Ana Fried as she faces the ultimate…
Dark Fae Outcast
Trapped in our world, the fae are dying from drugs, contaminants, and hopelessness. Kicked out of the dark fae court for tainting his body and magic, Riasg only wants one thing: to die a bit faster. It’s already the end of his world, after all.
But while scoring his last…
